This invention relates to an apparatus and method for successively forming disposable diapers wherein each diaper includes a fluid-permeable, top cover layer, a moisture-absorbent interior core under the top cover layer and including a pad of fibrous material and sheets of cellulosic material on each side of the pad, and a fluid-impervious bottom cover layer under the interior core and secured to the top cover layer along longitudinal and transverse edges thereon.
More particularly, the preferred method and apparatus of this invention relates to successively forming the prefolded disposable diapers disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 460,916, filed Apr. 15, 1974, and assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
Although methods and apparatuses have been previously proposed for successively fabricating disposable diapers, these methods and apparatuses do not lend themselves to automatically and successively forming disposable diapers of the above-described constructions and are for the most part complicated, intricate and expensive in design. In this regard, the assignee of the present invention has successfully developed and commercially utilized an apparatus for successively forming disposable diapers, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,661,680, issued May 9, 1972 reissued as U.S. Pat. RE No. 28,139 on Aug. 27, 1974, and assigned to the assignee of the present invention. However, the present invention improves and includes additional desirable features over the previously patented apparatus.